Madagascar Diaries

Being the sort of person that likes to plan everything, I began trawling the internet for tours and tour agencies in Madagascar. Working in a hotel with large couch tours coming in daily, I knew that I wanted a private guide. I contacted a few companies, and started talking with Jenita at Madagascar Natural Tours. We talked about what we wanted to see in Madagascar and he helped us to plan a tailor-made itinerary. Even though I’d done as much research as I could, when we transferred the deposit for our tour, I have to admit I was a little nervous. Transferring two thousand euros to a bank account in an African country made me a little bit nervous, as it’s the sort of thing you see on consumer protection programmes where people end up losing all their money paying fake tour companies. But when we got confirmation from Jenita that our deposit had cleared, we breathed a sign of relief.

Since we were travelling to Africa, and stopping in Kenya before heading to Madagascar, we had to get a few vaccinations and boosters, including Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A, Polio, Tetanus, Diphtheria and some others I can’t even remember now. Whilst Menno didn’t seem to be affected at all by his, except for a sore arm, I went from being completely hyperactive and hysterical one minute, to exhausted and suffering from flu-like symptoms the next. We also made sure to order our malaria tablets, despite the advice from a friend that we’d be better off not taking them and just taking lots of insect repellant due to the ghastly side effects.

A month before our departure we received details of our hotels, which made everything suddenly seem very real. We got excited as we looked at the places we’d be staying, and started counting down the days to our departure.

What to read more? The complete E-book is available directly via my website HERE